Common Sense In Lithuania

July 01, 1990

Common sense has finally prevailed in Lithuania. After weeks of unnecessarily risky dancing on the political high wire, the independence-minded Baltic republic, much to the relief of its friends in the West, has wisely stepped back to solid ground.

The previously reluctant parliament heeded the advice of Prime Minister Kazmiera Prunskiene-belatedly supported by President Vytautas Landsbergis-and overwhelmingly approved a 100-day freeze on its declaration of independence from the Soviet Union. It will take effect if Moscow ends its economic blockade and opens negotiations on secession.

The resolution also provides for an extension or termination of the freeze; if the talks break off, it will automatically end.

Despite the conditions this resolution imposes on the moratorium and its duration, it should meet Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev`s needs. And he has several that are rather pressing.

The whole Baltic question-Estonia and Latvia are also agitating for freedom-is a particularly prickly burr under his presidential saddle.

For one thing, Gorbachev`s right-wing critics keep warning that he and his perestroika will be the end of the Soviet Union as they know and love it. And they point at the Baltic independence movements as prime examples of the danger they perceive.

As for the Soviet left, it thinks Gorbachev has been unduly hard on the Baltics, which in its view are only practicing a sort of ultimate version of the perestroika he preaches.

And in the United States and other Western countries to whom Gorbachev is looking for understanding and some form of economic aid, the fate of Lithuania and the other Baltic nations is of great concern.

Even Moscow concedes the Baltics were illegally annexed to the Soviet Union in 1940 under a Hitler-Stalin pact. So it`s embarrassing to the U.S. and its allies to feel compelled to urge Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia to make wisdom the better part of valor despite their understandable impatience for freedom.

But the West has serious fears for the stability of the Soviet Union, deeply troubled as it is by economic difficulties, ethnic strife and a rash of independence movements. Nobody knows what dangers lurk in a sudden breakup of the USSR. Nor does anyone really want to find out. And so far Gorbachev looks to be the best hope for holding things together.

That`s why the West has counseled Lithuania and the other Baltic states to go along with Gorbachev and trust him when he says they may obtain independence under the new Soviet law of secession.

So Lithuania did Gorbachev a real favor in offering a moratorium on its declaration of independence on the eve of the Soviet Communist Party Congress that`s scheduled to convene Monday.

It not only allows him to show his hardline foes that he`s making peaceful progress on the Baltic issue, but it also lets him note that this will help clear the way for gaining the coveted most-favored-nation trading status with the U.S.

For a man who has decided to fight at the congress to hold his chairmanship rather than allow the party to become a pillar of right-wing opposition to his governmental policies, those gifts are of no small consequence. Gorbachev should remember his debt.